Identity theft is more common than ever. With so much personal information floating around the internet, it’s only a matter of time before someone gets access to your information due to a data breach or bad security. When this happens, you’ll be on the hook for the damage they cause – and it can take months or even years for you to undo that kind of damage. If you really want to avoid these problems, your best choice will be to start monitoring the web on your own. Below are three methods that will help you to minimize the problems caused by identity theft and stop some thieves before they can cause the types of problems that can ruin your finances.
The Basics
At this point, identity monitoring should be a given whether or not you have online accounts. The basic way to keep track of your identity and any breaches is to always have access to your credit score. There are plenty of services out there that will give you your credit score for free, and many of them will even alert you to any major changes. If you’re not already monitoring your credit through one of these sources, you are leaving yourself open to some of the most blatant types of identity theft. Make use of at least one of these services so you always have the ability to figure out what could go wrong with your credit.
Active Monitoring
It’s one thing to casually browse your credit report from time to time – it’s another to actively monitor what’s going on. There are dozens of different services that will keep track of how your personal information is used, ranging from programs that will alert you to changes in your bank account balance to those that will inform you whenever your credit score takes a hit. Signing up for one of these services means that someone is always watching what is going on with your information and that anything suspicious will make its way back to you quickly. Once you’ve got active monitoring set up for your various accounts, you’ll be able to be in the know the moment something suspicious occurs.
Going Deeper
While it’s good to keep abreast of changes to your credit, it’s even better to have an idea of what’s going on before someone can take advantage of a major data breach. That’s why it’s a good idea to use a service like TruthFinder s Dark Web intelligence service, which keeps an eye on the things going on under the surface. This is especially important when you consider that much of your personal information can be lost in a data breach and that the information that’s most important to you tends to be traded where it can’t be seen. By having dark web monitoring, you’ll get a chance to head thieves off before they can do any kind of major damage. Don’t stop at the surface – make sure you are monitoring what’s going on below as well.
At this point, it’s negligent not to keep track of how your information is being used by others. Take the time to know how to access your credit score, to get monitoring alerts for when your information changes, and to work with a dark web tracking services to know how others might make use of your stolen data. While it’s not your fault that someone else might maliciously use your identity, you’ll still be the person who has to do the work to fix things. If you don’t want to spend months untangling identity theft problems, start protecting yourself ahead of time.
